London Fashion Week & British Fashion Industry Facts & Figures

The purpose of the British Fashion Council’s digital pillar is to support the British fashion industry to become the world leader in creativity, business and innovation. It is important for the British designer community to drive forward sales and increase their profile on the global stage and innovating digitally is a perfect way to achieve this.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: 'I am delighted to support British fashion, which continues to be at the forefront of innovation. From how our designers are working and presenting their collections, to the fast paced dynamism of the retail sector, fashion is utilising the latest technologies to ensure this important industry continues to generate billions for our economy. London is developing a reputation as one of the tech capitals of the world, but it is already a global leader for fashion.'

Today, market research firm Mintel has released the following statistics:

• Since 2013 UK sales of online fashion have increased by an impressive 14.5% to reach £10.7 billion in 2014
• Online sales in the UK account for approximately 17% of total spending on clothing and footwear, up from 13% in 2011
• The forecast for the market remains strong with sales expected to reach £19 billion in the UK by 2019
• Today as many as seven in ten (70%) internet users in the UK buy clothing and footwear online, making clothing and footwear the most purchased item online
• Tablets are becoming increasingly popular both for browsing and buying with 20% of online shoppers in the UK purchasing clothing via a tablet in the last 12 months

Tamara Sender, Senior Fashion Analyst at Mintel said: ‘The market for online fashion continues to see robust growth as consumers become more accustomed to shopping online. Increased participation in shopping via smartphones and tablets has helped to bolster sales as consumers look to shop for clothes anytime and anywhere’ adding that ‘today’s Brits are increasingly moving between devices when shopping online, as well as using mobile devices to help them shop whilst in-store. As consumers combine different channels to shop for clothes, retailers have to ensure that shopping is truly seamless and that they give customers a consistent shopping experience whatever channel they choose to use.’

Digital at London Fashion Week

Caroline Rush, CEO British Fashion Council said: ‘This season London Fashion Week will be celebrating digital innovation in fashion, encouraging designers to embrace technology to amplify their stories and their work. Collaborations like that between Burberry and Twitter, Hunter and Grabyo, Topshop, Facebook and Instragram and House of Holland and Metail are examples that show British designers pushing the boundaries of social and digital media to bring UK fashion to a wider audience.”

• In February 2013, 33% of on-schedule London Fashion Week designers had e-commerce sites, however today, in September 2014; this percentage has risen to 43%. The ambition set out by BFC Chair and BFC Digital and Innovation Pillar President, Peter Fitzgerald is to have 100% of on-schedule designers with e-commerce sites
• Digital world firsts debuting at London Fashion Week SS15 include Twitter’s innovative use of the new ‘buy’ button with Burberry; Hunter’s collaboration with Grabyo which will see live streaming evolve into instant edited show highlights shared on Twitter and Instagram, and a partnership between House of Holland and Metail which will see consumers able to try on and buy clothes in real time via a digital avatar
• With London Fashion Week around the corner, research from Twitter found that 94 per cent of its users are aware of the event, while 74 per cent have an interest in LFW
• 78% of guests looking to attend LFW said that they planned to tweet during the event
• In February 2014 there were over 300,000 mentions of #LFW on twitter over 5 days, and nearly 100,000 images tagged #LFW on Instagram
• In February 2014 fashion bloggers produced more than 4,174 articles during the five days of London Fashion Week February 2014
• London Fashion Week live streams are watched from 190 countries worldwide.
• More than half of the people on the internet in the UK (49.7 million according to e-marketer), use Facebook every day.
London Fashion Week
• 82 designers are showing on schedule at London Fashion Week. 58 catwalk shows and 24 presentations will take place over 5 days
• Over 170 UK and international emerging and established, ready-to-wear and accessory designers will take part in the Designer Showrooms at London Fashion Week
• Over 5,000 visitors are expected: buyers, TV & radio crews, journalists and photographers
• It is estimated that orders of over £100m are placed during London Fashion Week each season; the International Guest Programme alone generates over £65m of orders
• 90 Wedgwood cups and saucers are used at London Fashion Week’s opening breakfast
• There will be 777 limited edition Swatch watches on-site at London Fashion Week
• There will be 20 American Express Insiders wearing uniforms designed by Osman
• At London Fashion Week SS15 there will be 1 Holly Fulton pop-up Lavazza café
• To celebrate London Fashion Week SS15 there will be 5 exclusive items designed for eBay
• Each London Fashion Week 200KG of Lavazza coffee beans and 30,000 espressos are served
• 3,000 ES Deluxe magazines are read each season at London Fashion Week
• Over 3000 phones are charged on the front row by Vodafone at London Fashion Week
• 5,000 glasses of Scavi & Ray are served at London Fashion Week
• 16,000 bottles of Beautydrink are consumed at London Fashion Week
• 80 Penhaligon’s candles are burnt at London Fashion Week
• 5376 bags of Propercorn are eaten at London Fashion Week
• Over 70 hours spent tanning and 15 gallons of St Tropez spray tan solutions used
• Each season Mercedes Benz Chauffeurs LFW VIPs 32000 miles between shows
• 35 hair appointments each day in the TONI&GUY blow out bar at Somerset House

The British Fashion Industry

• The direct value of the UK fashion industry to the UK economy is £26 billion; up from £21 billion in 2009. Showing an increase of 22% in nominal terms (source: Oxford Economics 2014)
• The UK fashion industry is estimated to support 797,000 jobs (source: Oxford Economics 2014)
• Fashion’s total contribution to the economy via both indirect support for supply chain industries and induced spending of employees’ wage income is estimated to have risen to over £46 billion. An increase of 23% since 2009 (source: Oxford Economics 2014)

Follow the British Fashion Council on Instagram for exclusive London Fashion Week images @BritishFashionCouncil